Barroso’s first hundred days in office: inert or inept?

In the first 100 days of his mandate, Jose Manuel Barroso has managed to politicise relations between the European Commission and the European Parliament to an unprecedented degree.

European Voice

3/2/05, 5:00 PM CET

Updated 4/12/14, 11:10 AM CET

His term in office so far has been the strongest impulse prompting the left forces in Parliament to close ranks. Indeed this is the first time that the centre-left has organised itself into an official opposition to a Commission team, which is perceived as being dominated by an economically liberal ideology. This is not only because Barroso was openly the candidate of the European centre-right for the Commission’s presidency, but also because his political programme has an ideological load which the left does not like.

Although this was not Barroso’s strategic aim but rather a side-effect, it is a welcome development. It is likely to make the European political debate more appealing to the public and to cut through the previously indistinguishable mishmash of EU politics where the only important distinction was being for or against ‘the European project’.

But controversially, Barroso spent the first 100 days of his mandate doing something that some would say smacks of institutional masochism: making sure that the Commission would launch as few initiatives as possible.

The former Portuguese prime minister entered the Berlaymont preaching legislative restraint, insisting that over-legislation and red tape were the main problems strangling business in Europe. In addition, the prospect of risky French and British referenda on the constitution has cut his appetite for any controversial ideas and reinforced his calculated immobility.

And so far, he has kept his word: since he took up his job, the College has approved only one initiative, a package of measures concerning air passengers’ rights.

But will not this self-censorship of the Commission’s right to launch initiatives curb the powers of his institution?

The Commission’s single biggest source of power is the near-monopoly of initiative. Self-imposed restraint risks jeopardising the Commission’s position at the centre of the EU project.

Self-censorship is a good idea but Barroso must make sure it does not become an ideology but only a pragmatic weighing up of what the EU should do, what it can do better than the member states individually and what the impact of each initiative will be. He must make sure that his self-imposed restraint is selective and not used against the institution whose interests he defends.

He must not neglect the areas where the EU’s contribution to making people’s lives better is still largely ‘under construction’, such as justice and home affairs.

And he must be prepared to manage the likely tensions with the Commission’s services, which will naturally push for more activism, and with his own colleagues, the commissioners, in particular those not in charge of a busy dossier.

Barroso’s first 100 days in office have done little to repair the damage inflicted by his clumsy management of relations with Parliament during the Buttiglione crisis, which cost him the approval of the first team he lined up. Barroso has still not managed to connect with MEPs. The negotiation of a new agreement organising the relations between the two institutions is riddled with difficulties. And Barroso is likely heading for more trouble, having bluntly refused the Parliament’s demand that the Commission re-submit its initial proposal on software patents.

But the Portuguese has already shown that he is a better manager than his predecessor Romano Prodi. Insiders say that the College’s meetings are better organised, they start on time and the debate is more coherent. The president leads the discussion effectively, draws conclusions and sums up at the end of the debate. Prodi, by contrast, was unable to sum up, leaving the debate in confusion, unless Mario Monti or Pascal Lamy drew the conclusions.

But better management of meetings has not spared Barroso the embarrassment of dissonant positions from his commissioners on major issues, such as Ukraine’s bid for EU membership.

The president’s big challenge will be to preserve the unity of his 25-strong team, while ensuring that it works efficiently. A triangle of power has already taken shape around Barroso, including the British and German members, Peter Mandelson and Günter Verheugen. Barroso’s task will be to ensure that over the course of the next couple of hundred days he makes that triangle the foundation of a team with a clear unity of purpose.

The keynote speaker at the 20th anniversary celebration of the European Medicines Agency offered some challenges to conventional thinking about the next 20 years – including carefully calculated provocations of his hosts.